CARIBOO HUNTING. 311 



organ. The hoofs of the cariboo, which they convert into 

 snow shoes in the deep snow, also, from their sharp edges, 

 enable them to walk over perfectly smooth ice. In fact, 

 they are at home amid snow and ice, and I believe that 

 every attempt to acclimatize them in warm or even tem- 

 perate climates has failed. . 



The great event for the hunter is finding fresh tracks. 

 These the Indians follow and trace out with great skill, in 

 favourable circumstances never failing to get within shot. 

 This is not as simple a matter as it appears to be, particu- 

 larly where the tracks are filled up with fresh or drifted 

 snow. A herd, too, when feeding, makes a vast amount of 

 tracks, as from the nature of their feed they are obliged to 

 do, walking about continually from tree to tree. Cariboo 

 are incessantly on the move. The prettiest sport is when 

 they are feeding on the barrens great plains dotted over 

 with spruce and juniper bushes. They can be perceived 

 from a long distance, and the stalking is very exciting 

 work. In stalking everything depends upon the state of 

 the snow. A thaw succeeded by a sharp frost makes a 

 crust, which the snow shoe breaks through with so much 

 noise as to render stalking almost impossible. The 

 only remedy is to take off the snow shoes and walk in 

 the animals' tracks ; but this, too, is sometimes impossible, 

 for obvious reasons. It is a charming sight for the sports- 

 man to see a herd of cariboo on the barrens when he is 

 hid from them, and has their wind some of them scraping 

 and digging in the snow, nothing visible but their rumps ; 

 others walking about or lying down. In favourable cir- 

 cumstances he can generally approach to within a hundred 

 vards, sometimes much less. The time that cariboo can 



